Festive Interior Decorating
by Hamaru Namikaze
Summary: After arriving in London, the Doctor and Amy decide to decorate the TARDIS for the holidays. However, after encountering two strangers, the Doctor loses a bit of his festive holiday cheer.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Doctor Who. BBC does.

**A/N: **This story is set in-between the series 5 episodes _Cold Blood _and _Vincent and the Doctor_.

Festive Interior Decorating

The Doctor laid under the TARDIS console, repairing an important piece of equipment. The tip of his sonic screwdriver glowed green and a high-pitched buzzing started as he soniced wires that were sticking out of a panel opening. He read the readings that came up and his brow creased in frustration. The readings indicated power was obviously still coursing through the wires, but the end result was that there was still something keeping the Perception filter that wrapped around his old girl's exterior from working properly.

Placing his sonic screwdriver into his mouth to free his hands, he went back to tinkering inside the panel opening. He was so focused in his work that he failed to hear his companion, Amy Pond, walk into the console room.

The ginger-haired woman walked down a short flight of steps and stepped onto the glass platform. She saw a huge shower of sparks and heard a loud yelp as she made her way over to the Time Lord.

"Doctor, are you all right?" she cried.

"I'm fine!" came his startled, muffled response.

Amy leaned against the railing near the console, her arms folded across her chest. "I figured out where we should go next."

"Great!" exclaimed the Doctor. He rolled out from under the console, quickly rose to his feet, and started to race around the console. He pressed, twirled, and pulled a few various instruments. "So where to?" he asked.

"London." answered Amy.

"London? Why there of all places? I could take you to Barcelona! It's a fantastic planet to visit! They have dogs there that have no..." the Doctor rambled on but stopped when he saw the look on his companion's face.

Her brows were slightly creased and her lips were drawn into a slight frown. But her eyes were what the Doctor grew speechless in. They were glaring green daggers.

"London it is, then." he sighed.

After he set the coordinates and a few other various instruments, the time rotor began to rise and fall rhythmically in sync with the familiar, wheezing-groaning (de)materialization noise. The Doctor and Amy held a firm grip on the console as the TARDIS took them out of the time vortex and to their destination.

Fluffy white flakes fell lightly from the sky as people walked up and down a snow covered London street. Some people held bags full from their shopping. Others stopped at the windows of shops to look at all of the holiday merchandise on display. Christmas themed music could be heard through the shops' doorways as people entered and exited the buildings.

A large gust of wind suddenly kicked up snow as a wheezing-groaning noise filled the air, and a blue, 1960s styled police box materialized onto the corner of the street. A door swung open and the Doctor was followed out by Amy.

"We're in the right time and place." he noted as he looked at his wristwatch and then at their surroundings.

"Great! However your record is still poor." said Amy.

"That hurts, Pond! I'm an excellent pilot." said the Doctor in a hurt tone as he straightened his bow-tie.

Meanwhile Amy had walked back into the blue police box. When she stepped back out she was wearing a long, slim, grey winter coat, hat, and white scarf. In her hands she held a long beige coloured scarf.

"Did you say something Doctor?" she asked.

"Nothing." he answered.

"Come on then! Let's join in the holiday celebrations by getting a Christmas tree and decorating the TARDIS!" Amy pleaded as she handed the beige scarf to the Doctor.

He wrapped the scarf around his neck and grinned. "Come along, Pond!"

Trees of all different sizes and types greeted the two time-travellers as they entered a small Christmas tree farm. The Doctor, pulling a long, sturdy toboggan behind him that Amy had bought earlier, led the way through the snowy field. His green eyes burned with child-like excitement as he looked at all the neat rows of trees, nearly jumping in joy.

He had never been to a Christmas tree farm before. Christmas, being a purely human celebration, was never celebrated on Gallifrey. So naturally, there were no Christmas tree farms on his home-world. He had been on Earth during the holiday season multiple times before, but had been too busy dealing with the Sycorax, Pilot Fish, Gelth, and other various aliens that seemed to like attacking Earth during that time of year.

A six-foot tall evergreen tree caught his eye and he excitedly made his way over to it. Amy, who had been following him, continued walking down the field, looking at each tree she passed by.

"This tree is perfect! Abies nordmanniana or otherwise known as Nordmann Fir. A great looking tree and easy to care for too." said the Doctor as he examined the evergreen tree. "I once visited a planet of sentient Fir trees. Intended on asking them if they were ever part of the Forest of Cheem. However things had gotten a bit busy that day."

"Doctor! I like this one!" Amy's voice called out.

He made his way over to Amy and looked at the tree that she was pointing at. The light-green tree stood at 12 feet tall. It had thin, soft, and long needles. When the Doctor moved closer to the tree and sniffed it, it smelled like citrus.

"It's a Douglas-Fir tree. You're sure about this one?" the Doctor asked.

"I'm very sure. Now, you chop and I'll go pay for it." She demanded as she fished around inside her coat pocket and pulled out a few ten and twenty pound notes.

Once the tree was payed for, chopped down, and securely placed on the toboggan, the Doctor and Amy began their trek back to the TARDIS. Snow started falling heavily from the grey, clouded sky as they slowly maneuvered through the streets.

The Doctor was in the middle of rambling on about snow on different planets. Amy half listened to her best friend's rambling as she scooped up some snow from the pavement and started shaping it in her hands.

Grinning, Amy aimed and threw the snowball. However, instead of hitting the back of a certain Time Lord's head, it flew passed his right ear and smacked into the back of a dark-haired female who was walking in front of them.

"Hey!" cried out the female.

The grin quickly vanished from Amy's face as she rushed over to the female, "I'm so very sorry. My snowball wasn't meant to hit you."

"Maybe you shouldn't throw snowballs in the middle of crowded pavements!" snapped the female's boyfriend as he brushed the snow off the back of his girlfriend's coat.

While Amy was busy fixing the snowball incident, the Doctor's attention was focused on the other male. The young man looked to be about average height and weight. He had short brown hair and wore a plain black winter coat with blue jeans. Really just by looks alone, he strongly reminded the Doctor of Rory Williams. His mate... Amy's fiance.

In the left hand pocket of his tweed jacket, his fingers unconsciously fiddled with a small, square, velvet object. A heavy mass of guilt, sadness, and anger all mixed together rose up inside him as his eyes went to focus on the back of the fiery-red head of his companion. He should have been the person shot back in that dark, damp cave, not Rory. He was angry at the universe, but at the same time, he was angry at himself. He felt like a failure, not being able to protect the ones he loved. Rory didn't deserve to die and Amy didn't deserve to have the most important part of her world erased from her memories. Another companion added to the long list of people who were gone.

The sound of footsteps crunching lightly towards him on the snowy pavement snapped him out of his thoughts. Quickly, he tried to replace the deep frown on his face with a convincing smile, but judging by the look of worry displayed on Amy's face, he was unsuccessful.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" asked Amy for the second time that day.

"Yes. I'm fine." he lied shamefully.

"Come on then. Let's get back to the TARDIS." said Amy as she took the lead.

"I will take you to Arcadia next. Then the Trojan Gardens. How about that?" said the Doctor as he followed behind Amy. The trips would be his compensation to Amy for the death of her fiance.

"Sounds nice." said Amy.


End file.
